Morung Express News
Mon | May 28
Adding a dose of creativity in their effort to scale up COVID-19 vaccination for frontline workers, healthcare workers, and people above the age of 45 years, the Mon District Task Force for COVID-19 Vaccination has come up with an innovative approach to organise a Drive-Through COVID-19 Vaccination Camp on May 31, at the Local Ground in Mon.
In the upcoming vaccination camp, only four wheelers with not more than two passengers will be allowed. After getting vaccinated, the beneficiaries are further advised to park their car and wait for half an hour for monitoring adverse effects, if any, and to honk twice to alert the medical staff if they feel uneasy.
Speaking to The Morung Express, Mon Deputy Commissioner Thavaseelan K said that the whole basis of why they came up with the plan is because a lot of people want to avoid crowds and are hesitant to go to the COVID Vaccination Centres. “We want to start off with the main town to see if the response is good. In the village setting, it won’t be possible but at least in urban areas, we wanted to do this,” he highlighted.
The District Task Force was also considering allowing people with bikes at the camp, but he noted that “that might be a problem since there are way too many bikes.” If this drive-through camp has a good reach, he informed that it would become a weekly feature. “This is the first trial and we want to see how it pans out. And if the response is good, we will make it weekly or maybe increase the frequency to 2-3 times a week,” he added.
He also said that the drive-through camp can go on simultaneously. The hospital is meanwhile opened for those people who do not have cars or those with bikes.
DC Thavaseelan further expressed concern that there is a lot of misinformation regarding COVID-19 vaccination which is “leading to a lot of vaccine hesitancy.” Underscoring that there is mixed response as far as getting vaccinated is concerned, he said they have also been doing a lot of outreach sessions in villages and found that in some places, the response has been very good.
“We have been constantly engaging in a battle of sorts, in handling and countering the misinformation. Hopefully, with time, we should be able to get more and more people vaccinated,” he said.
